How To Dye Brown Hair Red Copper: Hair Color Tutorial
Want to know how to dye brown hair red copper without ending up with a color that’s too dark, too red, or just not bright enough? Getting to a beautiful red copper hair color starts with knowing how light your hair needs to be and what products will work best for your starting level. In this guide, I’ll show you how to dye brown hair red copper, including how to lighten dark brown hair, when you can avoid bleach, the exact formula I used, and how to maintain your color once you’re done.
As a hairstylist, fall is my favorite time of year because gorgeous red copper colors are trending. For this cowboy copper hair color tutorial, I used a combination of Pravana shades to create a dimensional red copper color instead of one flat shade. I’ll walk you through exactly what I used and how I approached the process so you can recreate this color yourself.
How to Lighten Dark Brown Hair for Red Copper
Getting your hair light enough for it to take a red copper shade will vary depending on your starting level, goal level, and whether it’s virgin or color-treated.
If your starting level is equal to or lighter than your goal level, then you can skip down to “what to use”. In this guide, I explain the level system to help you determine what level your current hair is.
If you’ve dyed your hair in the past, you’ll likely need to use bleach. If your hair is virgin, you can use regular hair dye.
***Since I’m sharing the products that I love to use with you guys, this page includes affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product by clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***
Bleach Bath | For Previously Dyed Hair
In my tutorial, I chose to use a bleach soap cap to lighten my mannequin enough for it to take red copper. Mannequin hair is highly processed, so I treated it as if it were previously dyed.
A soap cap is a quick and easy way to lighten hair a level or two safely for the color to show up nicely. It’s a diluted Bleach, Developer, and shampoo mixture that you shampoo into the hair and let it sit for a few minutes (5-30) until the color is light enough. You can learn how to do a soap cap in this tutorial.
This is much gentler on the hair and easier to apply than a global bleach application, which is not recommended for this transformation.
Can You Dye Brown Hair Red Copper Without Bleach? | For Virgin Hair
If your hair is virgin, you can get away with using traditional hair color with the proper Developer volume to lighten and tone your hair in one step.
Utilizing 30 and 40 volume will give you the most brightness, while 10 volume will give you the best deposit. 20 volume can give you one level of lift, but if you want the copper to be vibrant, it’s not my top recommendation unless your hair is fine.
For the roots, I suggest using a lower Developer (5 or 10 volume) and even a level darker color. This is to ensure we don’t wind up with “hot roots” and that the roots are darker with the ends brighter.
The mids and ends are where you’ll use higher Developers to ensure brightness in your red copper color.
Use this guide to determine exactly what developer volume to use for your situation.
What To Use To Get Red Copper Hair
In my tutorial, I used a level 5 for the root and levels 6 and 7 for the ends.
As I mentioned earlier, the darker root color will grow out more naturally and help to avoid “hot roots”.
For the mids and ends, I paneled two colors together to create subtle dimension so that the color wasn’t flat. However, paneling multiple colors is completely optional.
I love Pravana’s reds, so that’s the brand I used.
The formula for my tutorial is:
- Roots: 5.66 (5RR) with 10 volume Developer
- Panel 1: 6.64 (6RC) with 10 volume Developer
- Panel 2: 7.46 (7CR) with 40 volume Developer
As always, I suggest performing a strand test prior to dyeing your whole head, just so you know what to expect.
I cover how to mix hair dye for beginners in this guide here.
How To Dye Brown Hair To Red Copper Step-By-Step
For the full step-by-step tutorial, watch my YouTube video below.
How to Maintain Red Copper Hair
It’s no secret that red copper hair dye fades quickly. This is because the dye molecules are usually larger than other hair colors (which is why they’re brighter), so it’s easier for them to slip out of the hair.
In the past, we were told that we needed to avoid washing our hair for as long as possible and to use freezing cold water to slow the fading process. But luckily, times have changed.
Now, it’s relatively easy to maintain red copper hair color with color-depositing shampoos and conditioners. These deposit more tone into your hair as you wash it to keep the color fresh and slow fading.
Just keep in mind that the shade will adjust to the color of the shampoo/conditioner and away from the initial color the hair was dyed. I suggest starting to use these only once your original dye begins to fade.
For a red copper tone, I suggest using either Amber or a mix between Red and Amber from Celeb Luxuries’ line of color-depositing shampoo/conditioner. One way to mix the two is to get the shampoo in red, and the conditioner in Amber or vice versa.
In another tutorial, I used the Amber color to transform a blonde mannequin to a copper color, if you want to see what the tone deposits like.
You can also read my guide for more tips on how to stop hair color from fading here for routine and habit advice for dyed hair.
Conclusion
Going from brown to red copper hair comes down to starting with the right level and choosing a formula that works with your hair rather than against it. Whether you’re working with virgin or previously dyed hair, you don’t necessarily have to completely bleach your hair to get a beautiful copper result.
And if your red copper hair starts to fade, color-depositing products make it much easier to refresh your dye and keep your color bright between dye applications.
With the right color formula and easy maintenance, red copper can be a really fun way to transform brown hair for fall without committing to a complicated color routine.
Leave me any questions you have in the comments, and be sure to subscribe if you want to make every day a good hair day!
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